THE BALANCED SCORECARD

The Balanced Scorecard

The Balanced Scorecard

Introduction

Balanced Scorecard Card (BSC) is a tool of strategic management to help business entities to translate the strategy for the facility and its mission to provide accurate performance measures framework for a strategic measurement and management. Powerful management tool that allows you to implement the strategy using a road map of objectives linked to causality. It is noteworthy that these strategic objectives must be measured using a traffic light indicators to achieve a visual management. You cannot manage what you cannot measure and better if it visually. As part of its methodology identifies the different perspectives of analysis of the company:

Financial

Customers

Internal Processes

People and Systems

That characteristic is what will allow the manager to complement the BSC with powerful functional management tools. Therefore we consider the backbone of the Management Tool Box. Without it, the message of the other tools could gain the utmost importance when it is relative (customer satisfaction, working environment, etc). (Ulrich, 1999, 51)

Discussion and Analysis

Sometimes it defined that the fundamental characteristic of the Balanced Scorecard is the combination of indicators and non financial, this is a salient feature, but not the most relevant. Already at the beginning of the twentieth century and during the revolution of the address scientific engineers in companies had developed innovative dashboards that combine financial and non financial indicators. A very limited definition deserved an unfavorable opinion. If this were the case, the scorecard would only be a new name for something that already exists. Through contributions Suize doctrinal JR (1976), we can say that this tool has its origins in the mid-century, according to Switzerland, is in France where the greatest impact has this concept, even if the very concept of Scorecard Company displayed in the U.S. around 1948. (Sidiropoulos, 2004, 14)

The Balanced Scorecard concept derived from the French-speaking Tableau de Bord, which translated literally would mean something like the dashboard or instrument panel. It is from the 80's when the scorecard reaches a more practical view, a conceptual idea, since the variations of the business world at that time were virtually no appreciable trend was stable and the same decisions made with low levels of risk. Over time, this tool has evolved, combining not only financial indicators but also non financial indicators that control the various processes of the business. (Kaplan, 1996, 75)

Benefits of the Balanced Scorecard

Kaplan and Norton identify the benefits of using the Balanced Scorecard include:

Focus the entire company on a few key elements needed to improve performance.

Helps to integrate various corporate programs. As: quality, reengineering, and initiatives customer service.

Break down strategic measures at lower levels, so that the heads of departments, heads of services, operators and employees can see what the requirements are at their level to reach exactly the overall performance. (Kaplan, 2000, 167)

The Financial Perspective (Financial)

Kaplan and Norton do not disregard the unwritten need for financial data. Financial data to date and accurate will always is a priority, and leaders always take care to provide it. In fact, there is often a handling and processing of financial data more than ...